Hugh Dennis reveals potential for Outnumbered return - and talks working with partner Claire Skinner

The sofa is nice and squashy, but too big; if I want to rest against the back of it, even my legs are too short to reach the floor, so there’s a lot of cushion work going on. If I were lying down, it would be incredibly comfortable, but I have to share it with my wife Claire [Skinner, his Outnumbered co-star] and our dog, a labrador called Ronnie – a terrible pun on Ronnie Barker. He regularly gets on the sofa, though he’s not allowed to.

Who controls the remote at home — you or Claire?

I like to think the choice of programmes is a joint decision, although if I’m watching sport, I’m often left on my own. We watch a lot of Walter Presents – currently, a very strange Spanish crime drama called The Drought, which is about finding dead bodies when a reservoir dries up.

Where does your sense of humour come from?

I had quite funny parents; they laughed a lot. Having a dad who was a vicar was also quite funny because he was always dressing up. He stood in front of people and wore very strange outfits, which is a direct translation to my career.

What did you learn from your time in Footlights at Cambridge?

That comedy is a really collaborative thing. Footlights is a sketch club, where you have to rely on other people and they rely on you. I relied on Steve Punt, whom I still work with, and Nick Hancock. The people I admired, who were two years above me, were Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Emma Thompson and Tony Slattery, who is now sadly no longer with us.

You’ve been in long-running shows Not Going Out and Outnumbered. Do you enjoy playing the same characters?

I’ve been incredibly lucky to be in all sorts of long-running things. Not Going Out is actually quite short-running in my book – we did The Now Show on Radio 4 for 26 years and Outnumbered for about 15 years.

Was working on Outnumbered last year better with Claire as your wife?

She’s my pretend wife and my wife! It certainly makes getting to set much easier and reduces the transport costs for the BBC. It’s very nice, a happy thing.

Will we get more episodes?

I don’t know. The good thing about Outnumbered is it’s always had to be about something. If they could find a premise that really moved them to the next stage, I suspect it would be considered. Clearly, I’d love to do it. But actually, I’m finding not being in long-running things now a sort of release; it’s nice to not know what I’m doing next.

You appeared in Channel 4’s The Couple Next Door as a stalker. Was it fun not playing the good guy for once?

That was one of the attractions of it. I very, very rarely get parts where I don’t smile. I played a murderer in Beyond Paradise this year, but being a stalker excites me much more because it’s consistently more unpleasant. There were certain bits where I said to my children [28-year-old actor Freddie and 26-year-old milliner Meg], “Please don’t watch episode four!”

You’re also currently in Cooking with the Stars — why did you decide to sign up for that?

I really like cooking and I thought it might improve me as a cook, as I suspect it did. What I learnt is that you don’t just put the salt in – you have to do a kind of flourish.

Are there any other reality shows you’d like to do?

The only one I’d like to be in, just because I really enjoy watching it, is Race across the World. I would do it with my son – he’d be pretty good and you’d see my competitive side.

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